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Hunt for ex-cop goes on amid Calif. snowstorm

Riverside, Calif., police investigate the shooting of two officers on routine patrol who were ambushed at a stoplight. A motorist drove up next to them and opened fire with a rifle. One died and the other was seriously wounded yesterday.

View LargerChristopher Dorner, linked to three killings, was fired from the LAPD in 2008 for making false statements.

View LargerNICK UT | ASSOCIATED PRESSCorona, Calif., police in full gear stand near where two of their colleagues were shot at by a man with a rifle. A resident pointed out Dorner to the officers yesterday, and they followed him until his pickup stopped and the driver got out and fired at them. A bullet grazed one officer’s head.

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BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. -- Law enforcement officers working in falling snow and freezing
temperatures searched a Southern California mountain today for the former Los Angeles police
officer accused of carrying out a killing spree because he felt he was unfairly fired from his job.

"We're going to continue searching until either we discover that he left the mountain or we
find him, one of the two," San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said at a midmorning news
conference.

More than 100 officers from various agencies were searching for Christopher Dorner in the Big
Bear Lake region of the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles.

Deputies were driven up snowbound roads on Snowcat tractors and armored personnel carriers
equipped with snow chains, he said, but helicopters were grounded because of the storm.

A search of dozens of homes in the Big Bear community failed to find Dorner and the search
was concentrating farther back in the mountains, near and above the place where his burnt-out
pickup truck was found yesterday, the sheriff said.

Officers followed what appeared to be Dorner's tracks from the truck but lost them on the
frozen ground, McMahon said.

"There's a lot of cabins up there that are abandoned. We want to make sure that he didn't
find a place to hide out for the night," he said.

A couple of reported sightings of Dorner didn't pan out and "we have no information that he's
come down into the community at all," McMahon said.

Local ski areas were open, but Bear Valley schoolchildren had the day off because of the
manhunt.

About 150 miles to the south, up to 16 San Diego County sheriff's deputies spent the night
surrounding and searching a rural home after a hoaxer reported Dorner was there. There were people
at home but Dorner wasn't one of them, said Lt. Jason Rothlein. Investigators have a pretty good
idea who made the call and will seek criminal charges, he said.

Though the focus is on the resort area, the search for Dorner, 33, stretches across
California, Nevada, Arizona and northern Mexico. LAPD officers are especially on edge because
Dorner, who was fired from the force in 2008 after three years on the job, promised in rambling
writings to bring "warfare" to police and their families.

Authorities conceded that the whereabouts of Dorner, also a former Naval reservist and
onetime college running back, remained a mystery.

The saga began Sunday night, when Monica Quan, the daughter of a former Los Angeles police
captain, and fiance Keith Lawrence were found shot in their car at a parking structure at their
condominium in Irvine. Quan was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton.

The following morning in National City, near San Diego, some of Dorner's belongings,
including police equipment and paperwork with names related to the LAPD, were found in a trash bin.

The LAPD was notified of the find, and two days later informed Irvine police of an angry
manifesto written by a former officer and posted on Facebook. Among those named as targets was
Quan's father, Randal Quan, the former LAPD captain who became an attorney who represented Dorner
in his unsuccessful attempts to keep the police job he lost in 2008 for making false statements.

"Bing bing bing, the dots were connecting," Irvine police Lt. Julia Engen said. "These names
are somehow associated to Mr. Quan, who just lost his daughter the prior day. The dots connected.
OK, now we've got a name of somebody to look at. That's when the discovery was connected."

On Wednesday night, Irvine and Los Angeles police announced they were searching for Dorner,
declaring him armed and "extremely dangerous." Hours later, they learned they were all too correct.

Two LAPD officers en route to provide security to one of Dorner's possible targets were
flagged down by a resident who reported seeing the suspect early yesterday at a gas station in
Corona. The officers then followed a pickup truck until it stopped. The driver, believed to be
Dorner, got out and fired a rifle, police said. A bullet grazed an officer's head.

Later, two officers on routine patrol in neighboring Riverside were ambushed at a stoplight
by a motorist who drove up next to them and opened fire with a rifle. One died and the other was
seriously wounded but was expected to survive, said Riverside police Chief Sergio Diaz.

Thousands of heavily armed officers patrolled highways throughout Southern California, while
some stood guard outside the homes of people police said Dorner vowed to attack. Electronic
billboards, which usually alert motorists about the commute, urged them to call 911 if they saw
him.

"Of course he knows what he's doing; we trained him. He was also a member of the Armed
Forces," he said. "It is extremely worrisome and scary."

While in the Naval Reserves, Dorner earned a rifle marksman ribbon and pistol expert medal.
He was assigned to a naval undersea warfare unit and various aviation training units, according to
military records, taking a leave from the LAPD to be deployed to Bahrain in 2006 and 2007.

He wrote that he would "utilize every bit of small arms training, demolition, ordinance and
survival training I've been given," the manifesto read.

The hunt led to two errant shootings in the pre-dawn darkness yesterday.

LAPD officers guarding a target named in the manifesto shot and wounded two women in suburban
Torrance who were in a pickup truck delivering newspapers. Investigators said Maggie Carranza, 47,
and her mother, Emma Hernandez, 71, were in a Toyota Tundra, similar to Dorner's Nissan Titan.
Carranza had minor hand injuries. Hernandez was hospitalized with a gunshot wound in the back. A
lawyer said they had no warning.

Minutes later, Torrance officers responding to a report of gunshots encountered a dark pickup
matching the description of Dorner's, police said. A collision occurred and the officers fired on
the pickup. The unidentified driver was not hit and it turned out not to be the suspect vehicle,
they said.

In San Diego, where police said Dorner tied up an elderly man and unsuccessfully tried to
steal his boat Wednesday night, Naval Base Point Loma was locked down after a Navy worker reported
seeing someone who resembled Dorner.

Navy Cmdr. Brad Fagan said officials believe Dorner had checked into a base hotel on Tuesday
and left the next day without checking out. Numerous agencies guarded the base yesterday. Fagan
said Dorner was honorably discharged and that his last day in the Navy was last Friday.

Nevada authorities also joined the search, because Dorner owns a house nine miles from the
Las Vegas Strip.

And agents were inspecting a package sent to CNN's Anderson Cooper that arrived in New York
on Feb. 1, days before the first two killings. It contained a note on it that read, in part, "I
never lied." A coin typically given out as a souvenir by the police chief was also in the package,
riddled with bullet holes.

Dorner's writings suggested he did not expect to live through the ordeal.

"Unfortunately, I will not be alive to see my name cleared," he wrote at one point in his
manifesto, later saying, "Self-preservation is no longer important to me. I do not fear death as I
died long ago."